Cashin On 'Occupy' Spain

Somewhat under-the-radar amid the US media's attention to housing data is the growing chaos in Europe. UBS' Art Cashin ensures we do not forget that Europe still drives the bus as he reminds us of the rise of the 'Occupy Congress' movement in Spain and the protests later today. With youth unemployment over 50%, it is sure that Rajoy will be keeping a close eye on this demonstration and other European leaders (and Greek demonstrators) will also be paying close attention. As Art says "let's hope the streets don't explode," especially given the NY Times noting that the number of 'hungry' Spaniards rose to nearly one million this year, and even previously well-to-do middle-class citizens are now dumpster-diving for food.

Via Art Cashin, UBS:

Hardly A Siesta – Spanish demonstrators are planning a rather active afternoon (actually early evening). Here's a bit from an AP report on preparations:

Police seal off Spain Parliament ahead of protest

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Parliament took on the appearance of a heavily guarded fortress Tuesday, hours ahead of a protest against the conservative government’s handling of the economic crisis.

The demonstration, organized behind the slogan ‘Occupy Congress,’ is expected to draw thousands of people from around Spain and was due to start around 1730 GMT.

Madrid’s regional Interior Ministry delegation said some 1,300 police would be deployed though protesters say they have no intention of storming the chamber, only of marching around it.

They are calling for fresh elections, claiming the government’s austerity measures show the ruling Popular Party misled voters to get elected last November.

The protest comes as Spain struggles in its second recession in three years and with unemployment near 25 percent.

This demonstration (1:30 EDT) will be watched very carefully across Europe. It will certainly influence Prime Minister Rajoy's timing and manner in acceding to bailout terms. Other European leaders and even Greek demonstrators will be watching intently. Let's hope the streets do not explode.

Via NY Times: Spain Recoils As Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a next meal

On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night. At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee.

But no. The young woman was looking through the day’s trash for her next meal. Already, she had found a dozen aging potatoes she deemed edible and loaded them onto a luggage cart parked nearby.

“When you don’t have enough money,” she said, declining to give her name, “this is what there is.”

...

Such survival tactics are becoming increasingly commonplace here, with an unemployment rate over 50 percent among young people and more and more households having adults without jobs. So pervasive is the problem of scavenging that one Spanish city has resorted to installing locks on supermarket trash bins as a public health precaution.

...

Ramon Barnera, who runs the Caritas programs in Girona, said the organization realized early on that shame was a factor preventing people from coming forward to ask for food. So three years ago, it helped create food distribution sites that looked more like supermarkets, and removed the charity’s name from the outside of the building.

“We looked for a system that would give dignity,” Mr. Barnera said. “This is not easy for people.”

On a recent morning, Juan Javier, 29, who had come to collect milk, pasta, vegetables and eggs from one of the distribution centers, was one of the few clients who would discuss his circumstances. A former printer, he has been out of work for two years. “I would like to have a job,” he said, “and not be here.”

In a nearby soup kitchen, Toni López, 36, waited quietly for a free lunch with his girlfriend, Monica Vargas, 46, a beautician. The couple recently became homeless when they fell two months behind on their rent. “All our lives we have been working people,” Mr. Lopez said. “We are only here because we are decent people. The landlord was knocking on the door demanding the rent, so we said, ‘Here, here are the keys.’ ”

Mr. Lopez, who gets occasional work these days in restaurant kitchens, said he had a sister but had not gone to her for help. “I can’t bear to tell her,” he said. “I have always pulled through. I’ve always managed to get by. This is new.”

This is the civilized way of getting things done. Vote for politicians who promise to provide you with what you want, andhold them to account if they don't keep their promises. This isreal democracy in action, and it’s thrilling to watch. The entrepreneurial capitalist model of saving and investing is over, and the age of protesting and collective action has begun.

Make your voice heard - What do you want from government/ Is the government providing what you need?

What do you want from government/ Is the government providing what you need?...

Who cares about the government? As long as Ben continues to trade ethereal currency and cyphrage entries into international financial ledgers at the rate of 56 million frns per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in exchange for real estate ownership rights from now on, the people of the US are evidently thrilled and even thankful.

Personally, I believe this whole episode makes the sale of Manhattan, the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of California and Alaska combined look like child’s play.At least the Indians got trinkets.

This time around the police and the military could actually decide to take the side of the people against the government and the international (dare I say it) - um- "tribal" banking conspiracy. I just keep looking for those skittles coming out of the unicorns' butts, don't I?

I had to laugh at Lagarde chastising the U.S. over the fiscal cliff, and making veiled threats that if the U.S. didn't keep pumping taxpayer money into the banks that the "crisis" would return (even though it has never left).

One problem with this statement at the end "we looked for a system that will give dignity". I don't believe a system can give out dignity. Perhaps a system can allow for dignity to be attained but not just give it to someone. Maybe along the same lines as not being able to legislate "happy". Semantics, I suppose but something the political elites should think about.

Austerity... Spain took a day trip to a rather luxurious Health Spa for some liposecution and waxing. Auterity is a revenue positive budget and paying down the existing debt load. Austerity has nothing to do with trying to lower interest rates so that one can more easily enter the debt markets to borrow more money.

"They are calling for fresh elections, claiming the government’s austerity measures show the ruling Popular Party misled voters to get elected last November."

There are many more problems in this world than the U.S., my friend. The whole of the West has been seduced by the same whores that the U.S. has and has contracted the same disease. Notice that the solution of the masses is more socialism, more democracy. They blame this on a Franco-style conservatism, not socialism. They are the authors of their own demise. Did the Spaniards not democratically elect the very government they now protest? Did the Republican party in the United States not choose, democratically, Mitt Romney over the only candidate who actually had some grasp of the problems (Ron Paul)? A survey of the democracies of the world would indicate that the problem lies with democracy... as Aristotle long ago observed and as Jefferson understood. A Republic requires virtue (which is what Jefferson meant when he changed the words of Locke from "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.") Education in the West has become an exercise in hatred: hate the wealthy, hate men, hate white people, hate your own history and culture, hate the West. How can one create a virtuous citizenry capable of self-government when all one teaches is hate and socialism? The problem is not some Francoesque conservatism... hardly... the problem is democracy, which leads to socialism, fascism, or worse: totalitarianism.

Thank you for your response---the following is not to be considered personal in any way, since I have no idea of wo you are or what you are about---my unthought, unwritten comment that is about to begin and flow automatically, is addressed to all here who might be most in denial of what is to be below:

First of all, my comment was made to the point that we run from one hot spot to the next even before we know if there is a real event, a news item that something is happening, without asking 'What HAPPENED?'. Pandering to the emotions of the least capable and most excitable of the population without shame. That was my main point.

The point that everyone dislikes, is to call the US and its dissemination of a media culture which panders in the same way, for its part in this, could be the fault of any nation or culture, but no other nation/culture is as culpable as the US; the denial of this is absurd.

As for the rest, I understand your comments and respect your points of view as they were once my own; and, maybe, talking and writing in the manner you did above has great merit in normal times. But today, we are the top of the food chain with more body mass to feed as a species than any species since the dinosaurs, and there is not enough below us to continue our current consumption. The end is clearly in view---and we are still having these pissing contests in place of conscious change, and there is nothing more frustrating for this oldman than to see the same conversation going on year after year without the slightest movement towards sustainable existance with all species or any more respect shown to our mutual habitat than the disrespect shown the 'day before'.

I am a do-nothing dude though my life has made a difference to many---I am also 60 years into this conversation and not a thing has been done to change the human impact upon our habitat or how we share this planet with all species in the mega-bio-diverse manner required for a healthy planet.

So, I won't apologize for my outbursts, but, perhaps, you will forgive me by doing more than gumming the problems of corruption, over-consumption, the structural problems of democracy, and just plain human indecency with platitudes so well-worn. I invite to pick up trash around your neighborhood as a test of faith of your fine words.

After that, or something akin to this selfless act, perhaps, we will have a basis for further conversation of course, this is an example of 'doing-nothing' that you will probably think is too insignificant to be meaningful, and you will be correct, but show me, please, a meaningful act that is a fact and not an opinion, point of view, thought, or 'propaganda'---In other words, something 'new' worthy of being called news om

We, ordinary people are fed up to live with the consequences of a system conditioned by and forced to adapt itself to the markets, which is in every respect insupportable, and has led us to be victims of a large scale scam which has caused this crisis. We unify in order to edit this manifesto. We invite every citizen to unify themselves with the claims we are making in this manifesto. We perceive that the current situation has exceed all tolerable limits and that we are victims of an attack without former precedents from the side of economical powers, who are using the crisis as an excuse. This is ruining our lives and those to blame are them who present themselves as an untouchable oligarchy. This with the complicity of all political forces represented in the parliament, who are manipulating the powers of the State by maintaining their privileges and excessive and illegitimate enrichment.

There is no way to hide that we live in a gigantic social fraud, with governments systematically betraying us by doing exactly the opposite as promised in their electoral statements, just as there isn’t any justice in the tribunals against bankers, politicians and business men who are guilty of the current situation. We just have to look in order to see how this structure of vicious and immoral power creates policies that end our rights and destroy our lives, and in order to see how we are victims of an unfair repression when demanding a change of the situation.

We believe that the problem is of such a big seize and the roots such profound that any solution will not be founded in reforms based in the actual political system. Therefore we demand:

– The dismissal of the entire government, as well as the dismissal of the Court and the Leadership of the State, because of betraying the country and the whole community of citizens. This was done in premeditation and is leading us to the disaster.

– The beginning of a constitutional process in a transparent and democratic way, with the goal of composing a new Constitution. We want to do this with the participation of the whole community of citizens, in such a way that the result will be their own, because we don’t recognize any democratic character in the actual constitution and laws. On the contrary these are drawn by a selected group behind the people’s back and confirm the domination of the heirs of the Franquismo era (the period during dictator Franco ruled) and those agreeing with them. It has to be the people who determine the model of social organization in whom they desire to live – not the opposite way.

– The audit and control of the public debt of Spain, with moratorium (delay) of debt’s payment until there is a clear demarcation of the parts which not have to be paid by the nation, because they have been served private interests using the country for their own goals, instead the well being of the whole Spanish community. Equally we demand the prosecution of all this persons who show and present themselves as suspicious of such moves, and we demand that they guarantee and pay with their own goods in the case they appear to be guilty.

– The reform of the electoral law, with the design of a new electoral process, in order to really represent the people’s will before any election which will be necessary to supply the development of a constitutional process of democracy.

– The immediate abolition of all cuts and all reforms taken against the well fare state with the excuse of the crisis, which set up limits to the population’s rights and freedoms, not only because they mean a disaster for the country, but also because they have been consisting out of taxes betraying the will of the people.

– A profound tax reform, which is making to pay more by those gaining more benefits of society. We equally demand the abolition of the fiscal amnesty ordered by the government, since these injustice is a real mockery for those who pay honestly.

– The abolition of all the privileges of those holding a political or public position, and the introduction of efficient mechanisms controlling the performance of those positions.

– The immediate paralysis of all forced evictions (forced leaving of homes), and to put at the population’s disposal those houses belonging to the banks and companies who have been helped by public funds.

– The creation of new jobs, which first premise will be the sustainability, and whose goal will be the development of humanity, as well as a form of management appropriate and adapted to the disposable jobs such that populations can work in order to live – instead of being forced to live in order to work. It is a tremendous hoax when over and over saying we have to work more, a fallacy supported by the greed of the big interests but contrary to the interests of the ordinary people.

For all this above explained we make a call to the population on the 25 of September 2012 to manifest in an undefined form at the gates of the Congress in order to obtain the dismissal of the Government and to make the beginning of a Constitutional Process, by making this call of unification of all the fights, strives and wrestling for a more fair Society.

We are the overwhelming majority, we are the people, we are right, we will not tolerate this and we will not be walked all over.

anyone here has the 1st hand experience with the actual life in Spain today? Just curious how bad it is.... being starving is surely very very bad, collecting food from within the trash is quite pitiful

I live on a small Island about 1.5 thousand miles north of spain, we have crap weather and fuel is £7.50 gallon, beer £3.50 pint cigarettes £7 Not Cheap to live here £750 month for a cheap house/flat. Quite a few Spanish people have begun to arrive here doing bar jobs and restaurant work! very unusual, some of them tell tales of living on the beach in Spain unable to get work or somewhere to live. They do not look happy, they look frightened.

I live on a small island about 3600 miles west of Spain. We have crap weather and fuel is $4.00 per gall, beer is $5.00+ per bottle and cigarettes are $14. Not cheap to live here - $2000/month for a cheap apartment. Quite a few Spanish people (well, Mexican!) here doing bar jobs and restaurant work! They don't look happy either.